Walk-aways by underwater homeowners might be the biggest threat in the mortgage crisis

A foreclosed home to be auctioned is shown in Homestead, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

I've said for months that homeowners who are suddenly "underwater" on their homes, particularly those who are underwater through no fault of their own, were the overlooked victims of the mortgage meltdown caused by the greed of the banks and borrowers.

The Obama Administration's $75 billion homeowner-rescue plan offers a lot of help to people in imminent danger of losing their homes. It does far less for those who are deep underwater on their mortgages but have the wherewithal to keep making their monthly payments. And that could be a problem -- not only for those homeowners themselves, but for the banking system and the economy in general.

Nice to hear, but if you read deep into the article it seems unlikely that homeowners like me will get much help.

Is there an argument against massive writedowns of principal for underwater homeowners? Sure: It rewards the person who put no money down, and it does nothing for the next-door neighbor who put 20% or 30% down and still has equity. "I don't think you're going to find any sympathy for that," says Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter. Trouble is, trying to treat those two neighbors equally could have unintended harmful consequences for the neighborhood if the family that's underwater simply walks away.